Method of manufacturing one-piece rustless knives for table use



R. T. LEE AND T. B. LASHER. METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ONE-PIECE RUSTLESS KNIVES FOR TABLE USE.

APPLICAUON FILED OCT.16, 19H].

Patented Feb. 28, 1922.

UNITED STATES Artur- OFFICE.

ROBERT '1. LEE, OF NORTHAMPTON. MASSACHUSETTS, AND THOMAS B. LASHAR, OF BRIDGEHORT, CONNECTICUT, AS$IGNORS TO INTERNATIONAL SILVER (30., OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD or MANUFACTURING ONE-PIECE RUSTLESS KNIVES roe TABLE use.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented lFeb.28. 1922.

,Application filed October 16. 1919. Serial No. 831,005.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, RoBnR'r T. LEE and THOMAS B. LAsHAR, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Northampton, in the county of Hampshire and State of'Massachusetts, and at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Manufacturing "One-Piece Rustless Knives for Table Use; and we do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the characters of reference marked thereon, to be'agfull, clear, and exact description of the same", and which said drawings constitute-part of this application, and represent, 1n I Fig. 1 a view of the two blanks before welding.

Fig. 2 a similar View of the composrte blank after the weld.

Fig. 3 a view of the blank after being drop-forged and before trimming.

- Fig. 4 a View of the completed article.

Fig. 5 a broken sectional view showing the bolster as a part of the handle.

Our invention relates to a method of manufacturing one-piece rustless knives for table use, such as table knives, carving knives, fruit knives and the like. More specifically our method consists in an improvement upon the method disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 1,020,158 dated March 12, 1912, and granted upon the application of Patrick W. Powers, the object of our present inventionbeing to improve uponthe method described in the said Letters Patent, where by we are enabled to produce knives of stperior appearance and wearing qualities at a reduced cost for. maintaining the dies used in embossing their handles.

With these ends in view, our invention consists in the method hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In practising our improved method we employ a blade-blank B'preferably of carbonsteel, but our invention is not hmited' to the use of any particular quality of steel for this blank, the only requirement being that it shall be workable and hardenable; We also employ a handle-blank 6 of a nonferrous or other rustless metal alloy, having a sufiicient content of nickel to set up an electrical resistance rising synchronously ing a sutliciently high content of nickel to meet the electrical requirement above stated, the salient characteristic of our method being the employment of a handle-blank which shall have the characteristic of rising in temperature synchronously with the blade-blank under the action of the welding current. ll e do'not limit ourselves to any specific alloy, but have secured 'good results with an alloy containing about equal parts of copper and nickel. To this we may add a small amount of zinc for increasing the whiteness and the ductility of the alloy, but the use of zinc may 'be entirely dispensed with if preferred. Two blanks of the character described and pref erably of the same cross section, have their ends abutted under pressure and are then welded at the point of abutment by the passage of the electrical current through them which causes the two metals at the point of abutment to correspondingly rise in tem perature until the weldingpoint is reached. The two blanks are thus fused together with the production of. a slight flash 7 between them, as shown in Fig. 2. The welded blanks are now subjected to the action of dies whereby the handle 8 and blade 9 are produced. in subjecting the welded blanks to the dies, they are placed therein so that the bolster 10 which is the member between the blade and handle proper, is entirely formed from the handle-blank, since it is the bolster which rests upon the table and takes a heavy portion of the wear upon the knife. llhe'n the silver plate covering the bolster is worn away, the wear is not noticeable as the silver-like metal is laid bare rather than the black color exposed when the silver plate is worn away from a steelbolster. The next step in the processis to remove the fin 11 formed by the action of the dies. The handle 8 is now subjected to the action of embossing dies and on account of the rela tive softness of the metal it may be very deeply and richly embossed to correspond to the embossing on spoons and forks formed from relatively soft metal. On account of the relative softness of the handle-blank the embossing. may be deep and intricate without breaking down the edges of the dies which aremade of hard steel and very costly. lVe may say in this connection that when the handle-blank is made of a soft steel, such as provided for in the Powers patent referred to, the depth of the embossing is not only very much limited, but the wear on the dies is so great as to be practically prohibitory. lVe may also state in this connection that when soft steel is employed for the handle as provided for in the Powers patent, the wearingaway of the silver-plate from the embossed surface exposes the black color of the steel, rendering the article unsightly. The handle 8 having been embossed, the handle and blade portions of the knife are prepared for the plating operation unless it is desired to leave the blade unplated. On account of the silver-like color of the alloy used for the handle, the knife might be finished and put upon the market without any plating whatever.

By our improved method we are enabled toproduce a handsomer and more durable article than can be produced by following the instructions of the Powers patent, as we are enabled to emboss our relatively soft alloy handle more deeply than a soft steel handle, and when the plating wears away in spots, it discloses only a silver-like color hardly distinguishable from the plating' Moreover the embossing of a steel handle rapidly breaks down the costly dies necessary for the purpose and their renewal is a heavy item of expense in carrying on the method of the Powers patent, whereas the soft alloys of our handle blanks not only do not break down the dies but enable very deeply cut dies to be used.

\Ve do not, as already stated, limit ourselves to the employment ofany particular quality or composition of steel for the bladeblank, nor any particular alloy for the handle-blank as long as the latter is chosen for a silver-like color and the development of an electrical resistance corresponding to the blade-blank so that the two blanks will rise in temperature together until the melting point is reached.

It will be understood, of course, that as the handle and blade blanks are electrically welded, the resulting'article is practically a one-piece article with no perceptible seam or oint to show where one metal blends into the other,

We claim 1. A method of producing a one-piece,

rustless handle, electrically-welded knife for table use, consisting in abutting under pressure a steel blade-blank and a relatively soft non-ferrous metal handle-blank, the said blanks having substantially the same electrical resistance, whereby they synchronously rise in'temperature under the action of a welding current until fusion takes place, then passing a current through the blanks, whereby they are welded together, and then subjecting the welded blanks to the action of dies, whereby they are conformed to knifeshape.

2. A method of producing a one-piece, rustless handle, electrically-welded knife for table use, consisting in abutting under pressure a steel blade-blank and a relatively soft non-ferrous metal handleblank, the said blanks having substantially the same electrical resistance whereby they synchronously rise in temperature under the action of a welding current; then passing a current through the blanks, whereby they are welded togethenthen subjecting the welded blanks to the action of'dies for producing a bolster from the metal of the handle-blank, and finally finishing and electroplating the article.

3. A method of producing a one-piece, rustless handle, electrically-welded knife for table use, consisting in abutting under pressure a steel blade-blank and a relatively soft non-ferrous metal handle-blank, the said blanks having substantially the same electrical resistance, whereby they synchronously rise in temperature under the action of a welding current; then passing a current through'the blanks, whereby they are welded together; then subjecting the welded blanks to the action of dies for producing a bolster from the metal of the handleblank; then submitting the knife so produced to the action of embossing dies, and then finishing and electroplating the article. In testimony whereof, we have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT T. LEE. THOMAS E. LASHAR.

lVitnesses CHARLES E. CREGAN, MICHAEL W. MOAKLEY. 

